APALACHICOLA — After nearly two weeks recuperating in Tallahassee from stab wounds, the 40-year-old Georgia man wanted in connection to a March 5 shooting at a Rainbow Gathering in the Apalachicola National Forest has been transferred to Apalachicola to face murder charges.
Clark Mayers, of Milledgeville, Georgia, was booked into the Franklin County Jail on Tuesday afternoon and later transferred to Weems Memorial Hospital, where he was recuperating from multiple stab wounds sustained at the hands of individuals at the Rainbow Gathering in the aftermath of the early morning shooting.
Mayers was charged with one count of first-degree murder, which carries a possible sentence of death, for the killing of Jacob Cardwell, from Golden Valley, Arizona, believed to be in his late 20s. Eyewitnesses said Cardwell, who went by the nickname Smiley, was shot twice in the head in the early morning incident, sometime before 2:30 a.m. EST.
Mayers also was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, a second-degree felony, for shooting 24-year-old Wesley Jones, who goes by the name Dice. Mayers was granted $50,000 bond on that charge but is being held without bond on the murder charge.
Jones remains in critical but stable condition at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, paralyzed from the effect of three shots, to his back, lung and spine.
Mayers was first treated for his injuries at Tallahassee Memorial, his room guarded around the clock by Franklin County sheriff deputies. The security detail remains in place at Weems.
Because the incident took place in a national forest, where the month-long Rainbow Gathering was to be held under the terms of a permit issued by the U.S. Forest Service, a meeting was held last week to determine whether the case would be handled by federal or state prosecutors.
“We clearly have jurisdiction,” said State Attorney Willie Meggs. Tthe federal prosecutors “have jurisdiction if they want it. If that’s a good case, they probably would want it.”
Rainbow Gatherings are annual meetings connected with the Rainbow Family of the Living Light, a loosely defined collection of people associated with hippie culture. The original Rainbow Gathering was in 1972 and has been emulated throughout the year in regional gatherings, often in national forests.
According to eyewitnesses, Mayers was angry that people were burning tires at the Gathering and began videotaping them. After his camera was thrown into the flames, they said he walked to his car, returned with a pistol and began shooting.
Jones’s mother has said she believes the tensions began at the 2014 Apalachicola event.
“Last year the same guy was angry at my son and his group, and he came up with a fire extinguisher,” she said. “This isn’t just this time. He threatened my son last year, but he didn’t carry through with it.”